


Comrade in Arms

by donutsweeper



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 08:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2844626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichabod and Abbie have to spend the night together and they're both perfectly okay with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Comrade in Arms

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HavetoHowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HavetoHowl/gifts).



How they got to their current state was easy enough to understand. There had been a chase, a Horseman, a flooded river and an impromptu midnight swim. It had been logical that, upon stumbling across the small cabin, Abbie and Ichabod took the opportunity of using the shelter it provided and built a fire in an attempt to warm themselves. Unfortunately, even with the fire merrily crackling away, it was still close to freezing inside the drafty cabin. Neither their sodden clothing nor the thin blankets they had discovered rendered much aid in the matter which resulted first in the proposal of the two of them curling up together and _sharing_ the blankets.

Said sharing was less successful than hoped. They quickly discovered that attempting to share blankets was rather awkward due to their significant size difference. "This isn't going to work either," Abbie said after grabbing Ichabod's arm and feeling the fine tremors that still wracked his body. "Our clothes are soaked through and it's stopping our bodies from getting warm."

"I believe you are correct. These blankets, while a truly fortuitous discovery, appear to contain more hole than blanket."

"And it doesn't help that everything I'm wearing is wet. It's the same for you, if not worse since you went under and got completely soaked. If we want this to make this work we're going to have to strip. As in get naked. As in both of us, together, under the blankets, naked."

"I have lain with women before, Miss Mills. I am married, remember." Ichabod unwrapped himself from their blanket cocoon and began, with quite a bit of difficulty, unbuttoning his coat. 

"Here, let me get that," Abbie said, slapping his shaking hands out of the way and then undoing the buttons slowly with her steady, if slightly clumsy, fingers.

"Thank you." Ichabod stood even straighter and more formal than usual, his hands clasped behind his back.

"I know that, Crane, but have you ever _lain_ with a woman when all you planned to do was lay with them and not, well, you know. Anything else." She broke off, finishing the last button. "There. Now let's strip down and get back under the blankets."

"In the war there was no option other than to lie comrade in arms upon occasion. In fact there was," Ichabod, his wet shirt sticking inside-out to his face, paused as he struggled to remove it. "There was," The shirt refused to allow itself to be removed and, in fact, as a result of his machinations, soon trapped his left arm as well. Abbie, who had managed to strip down to her unmentionables without difficulty, covered her mouth with her hand to try to muffle her laughter. "There was... Confound it! Miss Mills, if you don't mind, if you could see your way to aiding me. I have apparently become entangled within this garment."

"Here," she said, stepping up to him. "Bend over so I can reach." Ichabod, his left arm hopelessly trapped within the twisted shirt, bent at the waist and presented himself to Abbie at her level. "There we go." Pulling slowly, she eased the shirt up and over the back of his head, then freed his ears, his hair and finally his arm before removing it altogether. "Better?" she asked as she crawled into their blanket pile.

"Immeasurably." Ichabod made short work of removing the remainder of his clothing and lay everything out to dry next to Abbie's attire. "You have my gratitude," he said as he joined her under the blankets.

Their size difference was still an obstacle to be overcome, but without the bulky coats or sodden clothing it made it easier for Ichabod lie on one blanket, curl himself around Abbie and then cover the two of them with the remaining one. They lay like that in front of the fire for a few minutes before she broke the silence.

"So. We got away from the Horseman."

"Yes, yes we did."

There was another few minutes of silence.

"And we learned that his horse really does not like water."

"An important bit of knowledge to have obtained indeed." Ichabod wrinkled his nose.

The silence after Ichabod's statement lasted for a quite long amount of time before Abbie said,

"Smart thinking, running into the river like that. How'd you think of doing it?"

Ichabod twitched his nose back and forth before answering, "It was a tactic that ah-ah-ah-CHOOO!" He'd managed to turn his head so he sneezed outside of their blanket huddle and over his shoulder. "I do apologize," he said at the same time that Abbie said,

"Bless you."

"Thank you."

"Is this working," Abbie inquired. "You don't seem to be shaking as much. Are you feeling warmer?"

Ichabod paused to think about it for a moment. "Yes, I believe so. And yourself?"

"Other than the fact your skinny-ass legs are freezing? Yeah, I'm feeling a lot warmer." Despite the complaint about his legs she didn't move.

Eventually, they were forced to move. The fire needed to be fed and tended on several different occasions and their clothing turned so they wouldn't burn but after each excursion they returned to their positions in the blankets on the floor. It wasn't until the next morning that they arose for good. 

"Well," Abbie said as she was dressing, "I wouldn't say I had a nice time last night, but..." she trailed off and shrugged.

"Yes, we are in agreement then. Last night was less. More." He cleared his throat. "It failed to be as onerous an occasion as I.... What I mean to say is that I must offer my gratitude for last night as it did not prove to the onerous occasion that I feared it might have become."

"You're welcome,"she said with a laugh. "And the same goes for you. The thanks part of that, I mean. It could have been bad, or at least uncomfortable, but it wasn't. So." She slipped her jacket back on. "Ready to go back out there and track down our horse riding friend?"

Ichabod, his jacket slung over his bent arm, opened the cabin door and bowed. "Indeed I am. After you, Miss Mills."

"Thank you," she replied as she led the way out of the cabin and back into the woods.


End file.
